


How Ekkreth was Cooked and Eaten

by nimblermortal



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Exactly What It Says on the Tin, Gen, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Tatooine Slave Culture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-28
Updated: 2016-04-28
Packaged: 2018-06-04 23:49:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6680893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nimblermortal/pseuds/nimblermortal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are as many Ekkreth stories as there are slaves on Tatooine. This is one of them.</p><p>(This story draws heavily from Fialleril's meta about Tatooine slave culture, and I cannot guarantee it makes sense without that background; but I do highly recommend reading Fialleril's... everything.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	How Ekkreth was Cooked and Eaten

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Fialleril](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fialleril/gifts).



> Point of interest: there are, invisibly, two gender neutral pronouns in this story. Ekkreth uses Tatooine's third gender, which is a sort of all-encompassing genderfluidity. Kokkur uses Tatooine's fourth gender, which is agender. Since this is not in Amatakka, they are both written as 'they'.

One time Ekkreth was a slave.

Ekkreth was always a very bad slave, and they made a lot of trouble for Depur, and they were punished for it but they never managed to look very sorry. But one day Ekkreth got to thinking about all the things they had done, and thinking, and after a while their smug smile slipped away, and they began to look very brooding indeed.

When the other slaves asked Ekkreth what they were doing, they said they were thinking, and the overseers said, “That Ekkreth! They’re just shirking work again.” After a while, one of the overseers told Depur, who was very angry and demanded that Ekkreth come and explain themself to him.

Ekkreth came to Depur and said, “I am sorry I haven’t been working, Master, but I was thinking of all the things I have done in my life and I thought that I ought to be a bit sorrier about them. I’ve been a very bad slave, and I don’t know how you’ve managed to put up with me.”

“Mostly by punishing you,” said Depur.

“Then you should definitely do that again,” said Ekkreth, “Except that none of the other punishments has made the lesson stick, and I’ve been thinking and thinking about what you could do to make it work, and I’ve only had one idea.”

“I could beat you until you can’t move,” said Depur.

“Oh no, that didn’t work last time.”

“I could string you up in the sun without water,” said Depur.

“But when I came down, I would be just as bad as before.”

“I could send you alone into a sandstorm until the wind strips the flesh from your bones,” said Depur.

“But the way I am, my bones would just roll back into town and trip people up while they try to do honest work,” said Ekkreth. “Really, the only thing you could do is chop me up and eat me, so that at least the other slaves see what happens to bad slaves like me.”

Depur did not quite trust that Ekkreth meant no harm by this, but he couldn’t see how Ekkreth could do any ill by being dead and eaten, so he agreed. Ekkreth walked into the kitchen without looking back, and that evening a cook came out and brought Depur a three-course dinner.

“This is Ekkreth’s flesh,” they said, and set the first dish down.

Depur took one bite and made a terrible face.

“I know,” said Kokkur, who was afraid of being punished, “I did what I could, but this is Ekkreth’s body. Of course it tastes terrible.”

Depur did not want to eat any more, but he remembered what Ekkreth had said about the trouble his body would cause if it were not eaten, and he ate the whole plate. When he was finished, Kokkur brought the next plate.

“What is that?” asked Depur. “It looks like fried knives.”

“These are Ekkreth’s bones,” said Kokkur. “When we cut them open, we found every one was flat and thorny; but what else can you expect from Ekkreth?”

So Depur ate the bones, though they cut his mouth with every bite, and by the time he finished the blood was running down his chin.

“Bring me the last dish,” he said, “and let’s be free of Ekkreth once and for all.”

So Kokkur brought Depur a chalice filled with a dark, clear liquid. Depur grimaced and took one sip, and his eyes went wide.

“But this is sweet and good!” he said. “How did someone like Ekkreth have blood like this?”

“I am as confused as you are,” said Kokkur, and watched as Depur drank the entire glass.

In the morning, when Depur woke up, Ekkreth was sitting in his room. Depur sat up immediately and said, “But you are dead! I ate your body!”

“No,” said Ekkreth, “You ate a log of ginsu root, as bitter as slavery; and a plate of kaktru cladodes, painful as punishment; and you drank a cup of tzai, which can only be shared by those who are the same, and yet you are here before me.”

“You will not be here long,” Depur swore, and he grabbed his detonator.

Ekkreth saw this and they knew there was nothing they could do about it, and they thought there was only one way to survive an explosion that was inside you, and that was to become even bigger than the explosion. So Ekkreth began to grow, faster and faster even than the bomb could grow, until looking at them you couldn’t see what parts were Ekkreth and what parts were sand.

When Depur saw this he figured Ekkreth had blown up just like he planned, and though his room was destroyed by the desert, he went to another bed satisfied. But Ekkreth stayed in the desert with their knowledge: that there is nothing different between master and slave, between slave and desert, between one moment and the next.

_I tell you this story to save your life._


End file.
